The second Polly Grimes Town Hall Lecture of 2011-12 is at 10 a.m. Thursday when Tina Sloan, who spent 26 years as Nurse Lillian Raines on the soap opera “Guiding Light,” presents shares bits from her one-woman show, “Changing Shoes.” Tickets for her presentation at Bethany Lutheran Church, 4500 E. Hampden Ave., are $30 and will be available at the door.

Sloan’s critically acclaimed show has its roots in the actress’s own closet. A pair of shoes brought back some vivid memories, and the idea for a play was born. In it, she slips into pumps, flats, even slippers, to reminisce about the “beautiful, life-changing and sometimes difficult discoveries we make when we least expect them.” Her critically acclaimed play incorporates clips from her 26 years on “Guiding Light,” and from some of the movies in which she has appeared. Sloan was most recently seen in “Black Swan” with Natalie Portman.

“Be sure to arrive in your most favorite pair of shoes, even if they are slippers!,” advises Town Hall president Jean Hodges. “Depending on the weather, Tina may be wearing snow boots.”

“Changing Shoes,” Hodges adds, “will be an eye-opener and reality check on how we all face our journey into seniorhood while keeping fit, being graceful and keeping a positive attitide.”

Town Hall’s 2011-12 season kicked off with an address by Margaret Hoover, a former Denver debutante who has made it big. The great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover has lived in Bolivia and Taiwan, served as the associate director of intergovernmental affairs in the George W. Bush White House and written a book, “American Individualism,” which challenges the Millennial generation to take another look at the Republican Party. Hoover hopes the book will be “a road map” for the Republican nominee in 2012.

She lives in New York, where she is one of Bill O’Reilly’s Culture Warriors on Fox TV, and the philanthropy manager for a Wall Street executive. Her husband, a writer for Newsweek, was a speechwriter and communications director for then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Following her talk, Hoover and her parents, Andrew and Jean, were guests at an intimate Denver Country Club luncheon hosted by Andrea Bains and Art and Mary Starr.

“Growing up, no, I didn’t envision myself where I am today,” Hoover shared. “Back then, I knew that while I loved politics, I also loved to travel and so I guess I figured I’d be an ex-pat living maybe in South America or Asia.”

After attending Davidson College and earning a degree from Bryn Mawr, Hoover lived in Bolivia and Taipei and then returned to Colorado to work on Wayne Allard’s U.S. Senatorial campaign. Later, she worked on George W. Bush’s re-election campaign before becoming a member of his White House staff.

As for her own political future, Hoover can only say “perhaps.”

“Maybe when I’m 50,” she says. “But I’m 33 and I would only consider running for office after I’ve done something productive with my life.”